Chapter 9.1: The Mountain’s Locked Ancient Temple, The Forest of Hanging Corpses

Xie Lian raised his hand and said, "Be calm. The blood isn't theirs."

Sure enough, those people said, "That's right, ah! The blood isn't ours, it's...it's..."

Even though their faces were covered in blood, it still wasn't able to conceal their completely frightened looks. Following their gazes, the rest of the crowd shifted their eyes over to the forest. It was quite dark, so it was hard to tell what exactly was going on within the woods. Xie Lian grabbed a torch and went a few steps forward as he held the torch up to illuminate the forest.

Within the woods, something dripped onto his torch, making a sizzling sound. Xie Lian glanced at his torch before shifting his gaze upwards. After contemplating for a moment, he lifted his hand and threw his torch.

Even though the torch only illuminated the sky for a short moment, everyone still clearly saw what was on top of the trees.

Very long black hair, a deathly pale face, a tattered military official robe, and an arm that kept swaying back and forth in the air...

More than forty corpses of men were swaying in the air, hung upside down at various heights on the trees. Xie Lian didn't know how long the fresh blood had flowed for, but it still hadn't dried.

Drip, drop. Drip, drop. This created the frightening scene of a forest filled with corpses as blood rained down from above.

The crowd of people outside were all strong and buff men. However, when would they have ever seen a gruesome sight like this? They were all frightened so badly, they completely blanked out as not a single voice could be heard. And when Nan Feng and Fu Yao walked over and saw this sight, both of their gazes became focused.

After a moment, Nan Feng said, "Green Ghost."

Fu Yao replied, "Indeed, this is his favourite trick."

Nan Feng told Xie Lian, "Don't go over. If it's really him, then this is going to become a bit troublesome."

Xie Lian turned around to ask, "Who are you guys talking about?"

Nan Feng responded, "A 'Near Devastation'."

Confused, Xie Lian asked, "What's a 'Near Devastation'? Something approaching the Devastation rank?"

Fu Yao replied, "Not bad. 'Near Devastation' Green Ghost. He's precisely a 'Wrath' that had been assessed by Ling Wen Palace Hall, and they claimed that his realm was actually awfully close to the 'Devastation' rank. He's extremely fond of stringing corpses on trees and making a forest of corpses, this kind of game. It could be even said that its part of his famous reputation."

When he heard Fu Yao's explanation, Xie Lian thought in his heart, 'This name was truly unnecessary. If it was a 'Devastation', then it was a 'Devastation'. If it wasn't, then it wasn't. Just like how there were only the phrases, 'ascended' and 'haven't ascended yet'. There were no such things as 'near ascending' or 'approaching ascending'. On the contrary, adding on a 'near' word made people feel awkward.

Suddenly, Xie Lian recalled how that teenager who had robbed his sedan had held his hand and led him here. Back then, there really had been a moment where the sound of rain hit the umbrella that the teenager had opened. Could it be that the reason the teenager opened an umbrella was because he had wanted to block him from being drenched by this rain of blood?

"Ah," Xie Lian quietly let out a noise. The two small martial gods beside him immediately asked, "What's wrong?"

Xie Lian gave a brief explanation of how he had met a teenager on the sedan and how that teenager brought him here. When he finished, Fu Yao said sceptically, "When we came up here, I had sensed that befuddling array. It had been extremely treacherous. However, you say that guy had just destroyed it without any extra trouble?"

In his heart, Xie Lian thought, 'It wasn't 'without any extra trouble', that guy had just casually stepped onto it! He didn't care about it at all.'

However, Xie Lian said, "That's right. Thus, do you guys think that this 'Near Devastation' Green Ghost is him?"

Nan Feng thought for a moment before he replied, "I haven't seen the Green Ghost before, so it's hard for me to say. Did that teenager have any special characteristics?"

Xie Lian said, "Silver butterflies."

Just now, when Nan Feng and Fu Yao saw the forest of corpses, their expressions could have been considered as completely calm. However, the moment he said that, Xie Lian clearly saw the expressions on their faces immediately change.

Fu Yao asked in an incredulous tone, "What did you say? Silver butterflies? What kind of silver butterflies?"

Xie Lian sensed that he had probably said something quite important. He replied, "They were silver, but they also looked as if they were made out of crystal. They were not alive, although they did look extremely beautiful."

Then, he saw Nan Feng and Fu Yao exchange glances. Both of their complexions became extremely ugly, paling until they were deathly white.

After a while, Fu Yao spoke up in a deep voice, "Let's leave. Let's immediately leave."

Xie Lian asked, "The ghost bridegroom case hasn't been solved yet, how can we go?"

Fu Yao responded, "Solved?"

Fu Yao turned around and smiled grimly. "It seems like you've truly stayed in the mortal realm for too long. This ghost bridegroom is no more than a 'Wrath'. And even if the Green Ghost was responsible for this forest of corpses, he is just a 'Near Devastation' and would only give us a headache."

After pausing again, Fu Yao's tone unexpectedly became quite stern. "However, do you know who the master of those silver butterflies is?"

Xie Lian honestly replied, "I don't know."

"..." Fu Yao stiffly said, "Even if you don't know, currently we don't have enough time to explain it to you. In short, it's not someone you can go against. You should just hurry back to the Heavens and send off some rescue squad soldiers."

Xie Lian replied, "Then, you return first."

"You..."

Xie Lian explained, "The owner of those silver butterflies didn't reveal any malice. And if he had been hiding his evil intentions and is truly as scary as you make him out to be, then I'm afraid it'll be hard for us to escape him when we're within the Mount Yu Jun range. At this time, it's best if someone stays back and guards this place. That's why, it's better if you return first and see if you can help me by sending over a rescue squad."

He could tell that Fu Yao didn't want to stay here and deal with all of these troublesome things. Since he didn't want to stay, Xie Lian definitely wouldn't force him to reluctantly stay here.

Fu Yao was precisely a straightforward kind of person. Without another word, he brushed his sleeves and actually left.

Xie Lian turned toward Nan Feng. He was about to speak up and thoroughly question the small martial god about that teenager, however, the crowd of people was suddenly in an uproar. Someone exclaimed, "Caught it, we caught it!"

With this, Xie Lian didn't have any time to ask Nan Feng more questions. He immediately asked, "What did you catch?"

Two bloody figures began walking out of the forest. One was a strong and buff man. He had been one of the people who had taken the lead in rushing into the forest. Surprisingly, he hadn't been scared into retreating because of the forest of corpses' rain of blood. He could truly be considered as someone daring and fearless.

The other figure was the young boy he had been dragging out with his hand in a death grip. This young teenager had bandages wrapped around his head and face in a messy manner.

Xie Lian still remembered what the tea sommelier from the Chance Encounter Little Store had said. "Rumours state that the ghost bridegroom is an ugly creature that lives on Mount Jun. Because he was born too ugly, no women would like him. This is why his heart gave birth to resentment, and why he would snatch other men's brides to prevent the couple from experiencing a happy occasion."

At that time, Xie Lian and his team had thought it was just a rumour. Unexpectedly, there really was a person like this.

But him existing was just him existing. Whether or not he was the ghost bridegroom was another matter entirely. Xie Lian was just about to carefully take a look at this bandaged young teenager when suddenly, Little Ying rushed over and exclaimed, "You guys are wrong! This isn't the ghost bridegroom, he isn't!"

The youngster retorted, "He got caught red-handed at the scene and you still say he isn't? I..."

He suddenly stopped talking before he looked as if he had realized something. "Oh, I kept asking why you were so weird, always continuously going 'it's not', 'it's not'. It turns out you were colluding with the ghost bridegroom!"

Little Ying was startled by his accusation and began repeatedly waving her hands. "No, no. I'm not involved, and he isn't either. He really hasn't done anything before. He's just an ordinary...ordinary..."

The youngster aggressively asked, "An ordinary what? An ordinary ugly creature?"

He carelessly grabbed the top of that bandaged teenager's head twice. "Then let us take a peek at what this ordinary ghost bridegroom looks like, to be so fond of robbing other men of their wives."

His two movements caused some of the boy's bandages to loosen. That induced the young teenager into hugging his head before screaming. His voice was brimming with fear, sounding extremely mournful, yet extremely pitiful as well. Xie Lian grabbed the youngster's elbow and said, "Enough."

Hearing the boy's miserable screams, Little Ying's tears immediately began rolling down her face. However, when she saw Xie Lian step in, she looked as if she saw her light of hope. Immediately, she clutched his sleeve and begged, "Young...Young lord, help me. Help him."

Xie Lian glanced at her. Little Ying immediately let go of his sleeve in an embarrassed manner. She looked as if she was afraid he would dislike her because she had touched him, and thus wouldn't help her anymore.

Xie Lian comforted her, "It's alright."

Then, he took another look at that bandaged teenager covered in blood. Suddenly, he noticed that the boy was looking at him with a pair of bloodshot eyes. In fact, he had been peeking at him through the gap between the bandages hanging from his arms. The teenager had only stolen a single glance before he immediately bowed his head again to redo his bandages.

Although he hadn't exposed his face, the little skin that had been revealed was already extremely frightening. It looked as if his skin had been burned by a fierce fire. It wasn't hard to imagine what kind of a horrific face he would have under his bandages. It made other people suck in a breath of cold air, and that reaction made the young teenager shrink in on himself even more.

Xie Lian noticed that unexpectedly, both Little Ying and this teenager cowered in the same manner, as if they didn't see light all year round and as if they didn't dare to meet people either. As Xie Lian sighed in his heart, the youngster beside him became on guard. "What do you want to do? The ghost bridegroom was caught by us!"

Xie Lian let him go and explained, "I'm afraid it wouldn't be that simple for you guys to capture the ghost bridegroom. Just now, my friend had searched for him in the vicinity and didn't find him. This boy probably only came afterwards. The real ghost bridegroom should still be hiding somewhere here."

Little Ying summoned her courage and said, "You want the reward...but you can't randomly grab people and claim they're guilty!"

When the youngster heard that, he once again wanted to make a move. Ever since this case began, this guy kept causing trouble for Xie Lian. At the end of his patience, Xie Lian waved his hand. The silk Ruoye abruptly shot out and slapped the youngster, causing him to take a tumble. And it seemed that Nan Feng had also reached his limit for he swiftly gave the youngster another kick. Finally, the youngster hit the ground and didn't get up again.

That youngster was a specialist in stirring up trouble. Once he stopped moving, the crowd didn't know who they should follow. Thus, they became rather well-behaved. In fact, even after a few sparse shouts, they couldn't create a disturbance.

In his heart, Xie Lian thought, "I can finally begin handling affairs."

After sizing up the young teenager on the ground for a moment, Xie Lian asked, "Were you the person who threw that stone into the window?"

Although his voice sounded gentle, that teenager still shook like a bamboo sieve. He once again took a secret peek at Xie Lian before he nodded his head. Little Ying replied in his stead and said, "He doesn't want to hurt anyone. He only saw how the youngster looked as if he was going to hit me, so he wanted to help me..."

Xie Lian questioned that teenager again, "Those corpses hanging in the trees, do you know what's going on there?"

Little Ying replied, "I don't know what's going on, but I definitely know the corpses weren't hung up by him..."

That teenager kept trembling, but he still began continuously nodding his head. Nan Feng, who had been staring at him, suddenly asked, "Do you know who Green Ghost Qi Rong is?"

When he heard that name, Xie Lian became slightly startled. On the other hand, that teenager looked obviously at a loss. He hadn't reacted at all toward that name, and he also didn't dare reply to Nan Feng. Little Ying said, "He...He's just scared, and doesn't dare to speak..."

She kept trying to protect this strange teenager at all costs. Thus, Xie Lian asked in a warm tone, "Young lady Little Ying, what's the matter with this child? Whatever you know, let me hear about it first."

When she saw Xie Lian, it seemed as if Little Ying managed to summon a bit of courage. Even when the flame of the fire illuminated her face, she didn't hide.

Instead, she wrung together her hands as she said, "He really hasn't done any misdeeds. This child only lives on Mount Yu Jun. When he becomes too hungry, he'll go down the mountain and steal some food to eat. Once, he happened to end up in my house...I saw that he didn't really know how to speak and that furthermore, there were wounds on his face. So, I found some cloth bandages to wrap up his face and sometimes, I would send him some food to eat..."

Originally, Xie Lian thought that these two were perhaps a couple. However, now it seemed as if Little Ying's protection for this teenager was more like an older sister's protection to her younger brother, so much that she resembled a senior who took care of their juniors.

Little Ying continued to speak, "Afterwards, there were a lot of people who began believing that he was the ghost bridegroom. I couldn't do anything about it, and could only hope that someone would quickly catch that genuine evildoer...I thought that since young lord and your companions are this powerful, even if you disguise yourself as a bride to catch that ghost bridegroom, in the very least you definitely won't catch the wrong person. This is because he absolutely, absolutely wouldn't go and rob your marriage sedan. However, who would have known that after I left, I heard that the youngster and his team intended to go up and search the mountain as well? I was truly too worried, so I secretly followed them up to take a look."

She stepped in front of the teenager to protect him, as if she was afraid that someone was going to hit him again. Then, she began defending the teenager once again, "He truly isn't the ghost bridegroom. Look at him, only a few people were able to beat him up into this state. How would he have been able to beat all those military officials who had accompanied the bride's sedan...?"

Xie Lian exchanged glances with Nan Feng, both feeling an extreme headache.

If what Little Ying had said was the truth, then wasn't this teenager completely unrelated to their current assignment?

The bandaged teenager, the ghost bridegroom 'Wrath', the 'Near Devastation Green Ghost'. Oh, and they couldn't forget that powerful master of those silver butterflies, someone who could even make the complexion of a Heavenly Official's face change when they were brought up in a conversation.

A small Mount Yu Jun actually had this many guests who kept visiting it. It really made it impossible for people to deal with this. Who was who? Who had a relationship with who? Xie Lian felt his head swimming.

Xie Lian rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. For the time being, he didn't ponder over how much of Little Ying's words were genuine or false. Instead, he suddenly recalled the question he had always wanted to ask. "Young lady Little Ying, have you always been living around the Mount Yu Jun area?"

Little Ying replied, "That's right. I've always been living here, so I can guarantee that he has never done any bad things."

In response to that, Xie Lian said, "No, I wanted to ask you another question. In the Mount Yu Jun region, other than the temple here, has any other Ming Guang Temples been built?"

Little Ying stared blankly for a moment. "This..."

After thinking it over, she continued to speak, "Yes, they should have been built."

When he heard her answer like this, Xie Lian suddenly had the faint feeling that he had stumbled upon something quite important.

He asked, "Then why is it that under the mountain, only Nan Yang Temples were built, and not Ming Guang Temples?"

Little Ying scratched her head before answering, "It has indeed been built before. However, I've heard that whenever they make the decisions to build a Ming Guang Temple, the temple would always catch on fire for no reason before it was completed. Someone then said that they were afraid General Ming Guang had a reason for being unable to safeguard this place. Thus, they chose to build a Nan Yang Temple instead..."

Nan Feng noticed that Xie Lian's gaze had become focused. He asked, "What's wrong?"

Xie Lian suddenly realized that everything was too simple.

The brides that couldn't smile, the temple that caught fire for no reason, the Ming Guang Temple locked up by the befuddling array, General Pei's impressive-looking Godly statue, and the ghost bridegroom who had disappeared after it was hit by the silk Ruoye——

It was too simple!

However, something had been continuously blocking his line of sight, making Xie Lian unaware of this simple fact from the very start!

He suddenly grabbed onto Nan Feng and exclaimed, "Lend me some spiritual energy!"

Being grabbed like this, Nan Feng stared blankly for a moment before he hastily slapped his palm again Xie Lian's hand. He once again asked, "What's going on?"

Xie Lian dragged him along as he began running. "I'll explain later! For now, think of a way to subdue the corpses of those eighteen brides!"

Nan Feng asked, "Are you confused? There's only seventeen brides, unless we add on you to make eighteen!"

Xie Lian replied, "No, no, no! Before, there had only been seventeen corpses, but now there's eighteen! Within the corpses of those eighteen brides, there's one that's fake——the ghost bridegroom has mixed itself in!"